The story of Doučení jinak

Your path starts where you are right now

Doučení jinak was founded by Zdeněk Vlček. What began as tutoring individual children grew into a team that guides families through entrance exams, the school-leaving exam, international programmes and the road to university.

Zdeněk Vlček

founder of Doučení jinak

How it started

People learn once they know why

I studied at the Faculty of Education in Hradec Králové, but I did not go straight into teaching. Education found me anyway. I trained colleagues in the financial sector, taught bartenders in London and built a sales team. Every time I saw the same thing: people only really learn once they know why they are doing it.

I started tutoring more than ten years ago, on my own, with individual children. I soon ran into the fact that another hour of maths does not help a child who is afraid of mistakes, cannot read the question or does not know what they are learning for. That is how Doučení jinak came about. First we look for the cause and the motive, and only then add lessons.

At the beginning I had no idea where it would lead. We tried a lot of things, and only over time did it become clear what we are genuinely good at: preparing children for the exams that decide their next step.

Why „jinak“

Into learning, differently

Doučení jinak means tutoring differently, and it can also be read as do učení jinak, into learning differently. Every piece of work we do rests on four steps.

1
Diagnostics
Where the child stands against the real exam, and what is holding them back.
2
Goal
A school that makes sense for them, found together with the parents.
3
Plan
Preparation split into phases, with a clear first step.
4
Habit
A rhythm that survives a bad week.

From one teacher to a team

I surrounded myself with people who walked that road

I never attended an international school myself. So I surrounded myself with people who did: IB graduates who now study at universities across Europe and Asia. We train our academic partners ourselves, and several of them came to us as students.

We run every child as a project. When the partner changes, the plan and the whole history stay. We started with Dominik in year six and worked together for six years.

Our team

Petra
Arina
Tekla
Mariam
Laura
Mariam

What we believe

What the preparation rests on

1A child who knows what drives them learns on their ownSo we look for the child's motive, not just the gaps in the curriculum.
2A mistake is informationDuring preparation a child can afford one. At the exam, less so.
3Confidence grows out of what a child can doRecognition belongs to what they enjoy, not only to marks.
4Responsibility is handed over graduallyFirst the parent holds the plan, then the parent with the child, and in the end the child alone.
5The parent is a partnerSchool is a tool, and you are the one who designs the route.

Failscool™ grew out of Doučení jinak

A mistake is the key

The name Failscool sounds like a school of failure, and that is deliberate: anyone who grows finds out sooner or later that a mistake is the key. Failscool helps families outside the Czech Republic with the IB and with university applications. Doučení jinak stays at home, for families living here.

Where it leads today

Behind every number there is a child

Tutoring a handful of children grew into something I could not have pictured at the start. Today we guide students through the IB and through applications to European universities. We still begin the same way though: with one child and their question why.